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“Here, I thought you might be hungry,” Lily Evans said. She held the platter of sandwiches in one hand, and the door to the seventh-year boys’ dormitory open with the other. The Marauders – and what a stupid name that was, for a stupid group of boys – were all piled up in a corner, curled around a parchment that Lily desperately needed to get a look at.
The sandwiches were going to help with that.
“Hey there, Evans,” James Potter said, throwing a wink her way. She rolled her eyes at him, though there was no real heat to it. They’d dated, it hadn’t lasted, and a fake version of their previous animosity was more comfortable for them both than trying to be stilted and polite. It also meant she didn’t feel bad at all about the plot she’d cooked up.
“What kind?” Sirius Black asked, because he was perhaps the most teenage boy of all four teenage boys, and thought mostly with his stomach. And, according to the rumours, a couple other body parts nearby as well.
This, at least, Lily had come prepared for. “I had the house-elves make up a selection. They had some dragon ham left after the big end-of-exams feast, which should be a real treat.”
“Accio,” he said, and the topmost sandwich flew into his empty hand. The other hand, holding his wand, gestured and a second and then third sandwich flew over. He spoke with his mouth full, crumbs spraying everywhere as he got the muffled word out. “Cheers.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Remus said. He cleared some clothes and half a torn-up poster out of the way. At the same time, James flipped over the parchment on the table. Lily got a glimpse of what had been on the poster – an attempt at, uh, capturing and then animating the female anatomy – and put the tray, now three sandwiches lighter, down in the empty space. A moment later all of them had a sandwich in hand, and a moment after that, first Peter and then the others slumped over and began to snore.
In a flash, Lily reached for the parchment, the magical map that James had boasted about to her. She turned away from the four slumbering figures, feeling guilty but not letting that stop her, and perused the outline of Hogwarts for one name in particular.
“That’s pretty naughty,” Sirius said from behind her. The snoring stopped, except for the high-pitched whistling that was coming from Peter. Lily turned around slowly, already knowing what she’d see. The other three boys were watching her, holding – she now saw – sandwiches with no bites taken out of them. How Sirius had managed to fill his mouth without the potion taking effect was a mystery to her.
“It was a good attempt,” Remus said kindly.
James laughed. “He means we’ve messed with other people’s food often enough that we’re not going to fall for it ourselves. Well, except Peter, but he’s not the sharpest spoon in the drawer. Why did you want the map, anyway?”
Lily looked away, face flushing. “I wanted to– There’s someone–”
“A boy?” Sirius sang, prodding James in the side.
“Not like that,” she snapped. “Someone I used to worry about, is all.”
“If it’s Severus, he’s fine,” Remus said. There was pity in his gaze as he looked Lily’s way. “Physically, anyway. He’s still hanging around with that crowd, though, in case that’s what you wanted to look for.”
“Thanks,” Lily croaked out. She’d hoped that maybe, just maybe, he’d see them for what they really were and the boy she’d once known would surface again, but that was a fool’s hope, it seemed.
James frowned at her. “You could have just asked, you know? It’s a small enough favour.”
“I feel pathetic enough as it is,” Lily admitted to them and to herself. “But I suppose that’s all out in the open now, anyway. He’s made his choice, and I wish I didn’t still care whether he’s safe, but I do.”
Sirius shrugged a little too casually for it to be a natural motion. “My brother’s hanging out with the same group. I keep an eye out occasionally, because even if he’s an idiot at best, he’s still my little bro, you know?”
“If you want to have a look in the future, just say so,” Remus added. “And you don’t have to bring any sandwiches, either. James is a wizard in the kitchen.”
“And deeply disturbed by the dragon ham that I can’t eat now, because it’ll put me straight to sleep,” James added. “That’s the real tragedy here.”
“I’ll take them back down to the kitchens and have the house-elves dispose of them,” Lily said. “And… thanks. For understanding.”
“You can leave a couple up here, actually,” Remus said with a small smile. “I’ve been tired the last few days, and going by Peter’s snoring that’s a fine sleeping draught. It’d be a shame to waste it.”
“Of course,” Lily said, feeling even worse. She was so used to the bags under his eyes that she hadn’t noticed they were deeper than usual.
Sirius rose to his feet and gestured with his wand, floating the platter up and towards the stairs. Three sandwiches zipped to Remus’ nightstand while he and James gently shook Peter awake. “What happened?” he yawned, then rolled over and fell asleep again. Despite the last few minutes being remarkably uncomfortable, Lily felt a spark of pride in her brewing skills.
“Let me escort you out,” Sirius said to Lily, flashing her a smile that took the sting out of the words. They left the dorm behind and made their way down the stairs to the common room. Once they were out of earshot of the others, Sirius spoke again. “Like I said, my brother’s in the same group. I’ll keep an eye out and let you know if anything changes with Sni– with Snape.”
“Thank you,” Lily said. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“Don’t worry about it. Us lions have got to stick together, right?”
“Right,” Lily agreed, meeting his eyes for the first time that day. “But I will make it up to you. We lions do need to stick together.”
“Deal.”
Lions did stick together, and so a year later Lily found herself in the Black family home, tending to a frantic Sirius. The rift with his parents hadn’t been mended, as such – more superseded by fresher events. They were with Regulus in St Mungos, and nobody was sure when he’d be fit to return.
Sirius was a wreck, emotionally, so Lily was as much keeping him alive and functioning as she was acting as a guard in case of another Death Eater attack. Regulus would be returning to Grimmauld Place once he was cleared to go home, and it was their duty to make sure no threats would be waiting.
“Here,” she said, setting a bowl of soup down in front of Sirius. “I made it myself, before you complain or refuse to eat. You’ll do your brother no good if you’re too weak to lift your wand.”
“I’m too stressed to eat,” Sirius shot back, but at the look on her face he picked up the spoon and dug in.
“This might not be what you want–”
“I want to be out there, with James and Remus, tracking down the bastards who did this to him,” Sirius snapped.
Lily glared him into submission and he ate another spoonful. “This isn’t my first choice for where to spend the weekend either, thank you very much. But you’re needed here, and someone else is needed with you.”
“...I know,” he said. “And I am grateful. It’s just…”
“It’s not what any of us wanted,” Lily agreed. “And look on the bright side. At least Regulus is going to live, and after that particular bit of infighting he’s not going back to the Death Eaters either.”
“I want him to be well, so I can lay into him for everything he’s done.” Sirius slapped a hand on the table. “And also my parents for filling his head with so much nonsense.”
Lily thought about her own sibling issues. “That might make you feel better, but it won’t fix things.”
“Good,” Sirius said. “I want to feel better and I don’t care about fixing things.”
Despite the grim mood, Lily laughed at that. “In that case, let me help. I’ve got some anger of my own to work out.”
“It’ll be a family thing,” Sirius demurred, but then he brightened up. “Having some support would be nice, though, and it’s not like I’ve given a shit about upsetting them before. Yeah, once they’re back I’m gonna rip my parents a new one, and you’re gonna back me up.”
“On one condition. Finish your soup.”
“Yes, miss,” Sirius said, winking. “I do have a weakness for stern teacher figures. Man, I still can’t believe I never got to hook up with that last Defence professor, I thought I was in there for sure.”
“Gross.” Lily decided to change the topic. “I’ve got a couple potions brewing upstairs that might help with Regulus’s recovery. And a small cauldron that might help you, as well, though it’s a fairly mild one. Fortification of the limbs and reinforcement of the fibers, apparently, which as far as I can tell just means it strengthens the body a little against physical trauma.”
“Why not just include it in the soup?” Sirius asked, mouth full.
“What, mix it in?”
“No, instead of a potion, just make a meal directly. You know, so it’s more homogenous and tastes better?”
“Brewing and cooking aren’t the same thing,” Lily pointed out.
Sirius waggled his hand noncommittally. “You know what I mean. Let’s not split hairs.”
It’d been a while since she’d felt so in the dark about a potions-related topic. Lily felt her hackles raise. “What exactly is the difference between brewing a potion and making a meal, then?”
“Meals leave you full afterwards, and usually they taste better,” Sirius replied promptly. “What is this, another round of OWLs? I thought we’d graduated, unless that was all a dream and I’m about to wake up with twelve inches due on the uses of pickled dragon testicles for Slughorn.”
“No, I–is that something that should have been on the OWLs?” Lily asked. “Only it wasn’t in any of our textbooks.”
“Pickled dragon testicles?”
“No,” Lily snapped. She knew all about the uses of dragon parts. “Potion brewing and cooking, the similarities thereof, which I’m just hearing about for the first time.”
“Potions masters don’t want to be thought of as glorified chefs, so they don’t talk about the history of the art much. But potions are just a very concentrated, very potent version of your standard slightly-magical meal.” Sirius felt as baffled as Lily looked. “Did you not know that?”
“Nobody ever told me, so no, I didn’t.”
“Oh,” Sirius said. He clearly wasn’t sure what to say, and Lily watched as he rallied and pressed on with the air of someone ripping off a plaster.“Well, yeah, cooking with magical properties is really old. At some point someone must have figured that it’s easier to get a concentrated effect if you don’t add a bunch of carrots and parsnips to your healing stew, and also it’s easier to drink three doses of different potions than it is to eat three whole meals in one sitting. Now the effects all come in little bottles, and there’s way more potions than there used to be recipes, but the roots of potion-making lie in cooking. And plenty of wizards and witches still cook magical food. There’s even recipes specifically for house-elves, since their magic is a bit different and they can’t make normal potions.”
“...How much of the food at Hogwarts is magical?”
“None of it, or at least not properly magical. Just the usual stuff, physical health and wellbeing and so on.”
Lily’s eyes widened even further. “The usual stuff? How usual are we talking, here?”
“Well, everyone does it, that’s how usual it is.” Sirius hastily corrected himself at the look on her face. “The old families all do it, anyway. It’s not that big of a deal, it doesn’t have a big effect. You need to be eating magical food for years for it to really make a difference.”
“I don’t know why I’m so shocked,” Lily said to herself. She turned to Sirius. “I don’t suppose there’s a list of these things somewhere?”
“I thought you knew,” Sirius said, looking wretched.
She shrugged. “Hey, I also thought I knew all the important things. It’s never nice finding out you’re wrong about something, but I’m glad I have people I can trust to fill me in.”
Sirius cast about for a change of topic with his usual lack of subtlety. “Besides, it’s not like muggles don’t have magical food anyway.”
“What?”
“You know that curse you get when you’re far away from green growing things for a long time? At sea, or somewhere frozen, or underground for months on end? Your body starts to be unmade, your blood thins, and so on, but the juice of a lemon will break the affliction.”
It took a moment for Lily to put the pieces together. “You mean scurvy? That’s just a lack of vitamin C, it’s not a curse.”
“If you want to believe that, sure,” Sirius said. “Next you’ll tell me that mushrooms can’t open the inner eye.”
“There’s no such thing as the inner eye, wizards have done enough dissections that they’d have found one if it were real,” Lily shot back. There was enough serious information for her to digest that she didn’t want to get into an academic debate, but winding Sirius up sounded like a much more enjoyable pastime.
After that, the evening devolved into pleasant but petty bickering. Lily told herself it was to cheer Sirius up, but after the second hour it was impossible to pretend she wasn’t also – in the midst of a war, while waiting for attackers to break down the door – having the time of her life.
“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked Lily a couple of months later.
It was a fair question. Sirius and Regulus had been packed off to the same safe house, under the protection of the Order of the Phoenix. The handful of frontline fighters that the Order fielded passed through on occasion, but otherwise it was a carefully guarded secret.
They were running out of safe places.
“Regulus needs a lot of attention and while I’m not much of a healer, I know my way around a cauldron.” Lily shrugged. “So I volunteered.”
The house was nice, a farmhouse in the countryside whose detached barn and stables had been converted into a duelling pit and potions laboratory respectively, but it did have some quirks, such as the kitchen being directly below the dining room and the only way in and out of the building.
“But why are you in the kitchen? I’ve never known you to cook, except that one time you tried to put me to sleep.”
“I’ve been experimenting with magical cooking, after I found out it’s something that’s apparently real,” Lily said.
Remus shrugged. “Werewolves don’t benefit from it the same way regular humans do, so I’ve never bothered to learn the details. I’m sure you’re doing a good job though. Regulus is human again most of the time.”
“Sirius has really been putting in the time with him, getting him back on his feet as much as possible. I think he’ll make a full recovery.” She grit her teeth. “If I ever get my hands on whoever invented that curse…”
“We think it was Voldemort himself,” Remus said. “Though we did get Pademenes and Aster, so that’s two of the three who actually attacked Regulus.”
“Sirius was there for Aster, wasn’t he?” Lily asked.
Remus nodded. “He went for the throat. Had to, Aster was an absolute fiend in a duel, but I don’t think Sirius would have held back even if it was an option.”
“I don’t think either of us blames him for that.”
There was a grim silence for a moment.
Remus looked from her to the stew pot and back again. “So, why does that smell of pumpkin and fresh blood?”
“The pumpkin is because I put pumpkin in.”
Remus cocked an eyebrow and after a moment Lily gave in.
“And the rest is because I wanted to do something nice for Sirius, so I figured out a midway point between a nice stew and a potion that reminds you of things you love. It’s interesting that you’re getting blood, for me it’s flowers and a sharp tang of chlorine.”
“You should go swimming again,” Remus suggested, but Lily had thought it over already. It wouldn’t be happening until Voldemort was defeated – she couldn’t bring her wand into a public pool, after all, and swimming unarmed was out of the question.
“One day, perhaps,” she said instead.
“In the meantime, I’m sure Sirius will enjoy the meal, and all the more for you having cooked it for him.”
“You think so?”
Remus smiled wistfully. “It’s something a bit special, having a girl who likes you make something for you.”
“Oh, are you seeing someone?” Lily asked, then her brain caught up with her mouth. “That’s not what– actually, who gives a fuck, sure. I didn’t want to be too obvious because it’s early days and James might be hurt. It’s one of his best friends, after all.”
“James is tougher than you think,” Remus said, then glanced around guiltily. “And besides, he’s also interested in someone else, but hesitant to do anything too obvious about it because of you.”
“What a pair we make,” Lily said, laughing. It might not have been a relationship built to last, but at least they’d kept that mutual respect.
“But why is this your opening move with Sirius? Isn’t that coming on a bit strong?” Remus asked.
Lily shrugged. “He suggested I cook something magical, and this seemed like a nice and easy way to start.”
“If you’re sure,” Remus said. “Anyway, I’d best be off. Things to do, places to be, and so on. You take care, and if Sirius is a big idiot I’ll talk to him.”
The stew was finished shortly after, and Lily brought two bowls up for her not-formally-a-date with Sirius Black. Later that evening she brought the empty bowls back down, and bumped into a returning Remus.
“When you said my cooking was coming on too strong,” she hissed, “why didn’t you tell me it’s traditionally made to celebrate an engagement?”
“Ah,” Remus said, not the least bit bashful. “About that. Well, at first I decided it was really funny. And then I figured Sirius would get a kick out of it. And also, once he’d explained it to you, and you talked things over, I thought you’d decide to give dating a try first. Was I right?”
Lily glared at him a moment longer, then grinned. “Yes, and yes.”
“In that case, congratulations,” Remus said, giving her a hug. “And I owe Regulus five sickles.”
“You bet on my love life?” Lily asked, laughing. “And what do you mean, ‘five sickles’? Am I not worth more?”
“We were betting on Sirius’s love life, actually,” Remus corrected her.
“In that case, five sickles is too much. Regulus robbed you,” Lily cackled. “Tell you what, go double or nothing on Sirius having a love bite by the end of the week. I’ll get you your money back.”
“You’re a good friend,” Remus said, grinning.
A year later, Lily was rushing home from work to the small house she and Sirius shared. He’d inherit Grimmauld Place eventually, but in the interests of the tentative family peace that had been established, he wanted to keep his distance from his parents. Regulus had been distraught, though Sirius joked it was more because he missed Lily than because of his brother.
“You’re cooking tonight,” Lily announced to her fiance as soon as she walked through the door.
Sirius shouted back from the kitchen. “I’m already elbow-deep in chopped carrots!”
Rather than plop down on the sofa, she walked over to him and gave him a lingering kiss.
“Any reason in particular for that? Not that I mind,” he added hastily.
Lily smiled. “Why were you already cooking? It was supposed to be my day today,” she asked.
“You’re brewing and stewing all day, so I don’t mind making more than half the dinners. And this way I get to pick my favourites more often. Besides,” Sirius puffed up his chest, “what kind of a man would I be if I couldn’t feed my fiancée?”
“You’ll have to change that saying, you know,” Lily said, kissing him again.
“When we get married? Yeah, I know.”
“No, something a bit bigger than that.”
“Change it to what?” Sirius asked.
Lily grinned from ear to ear. “You should probably mention our child in the mix somewhere.”
It took him a second to catch on, but when he did, he dropped both carrot and knife onto the chopping board in shock. A moment later he was cheering and dancing for joy, dinner forgotten for the moment.